Some issues involved in the measurement of student motivation and learning strategies are explored, focusing on a self-report instrument, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The MSLQ, designed to assess the motivational orientation and learning strategy use of college students and based on a social-cognitive view, has been…

The Inventario de Comportamiento de Estudio (ICE), a Spanish translation of the Study Behavior Inventory (SBI) was developed and tested using a group of 594 undergraduate students from randomly selected classes at a private comprehensive university in Mexico. Both instruments were designed to assess the study behaviors of students in institutions…

The ways in which knowledge of mechanical motion is affected by contextual factors of assessment such as means of depiction (ranging from abstract to contextualized) and the effect of sequencing of contexts (from abstract to contextualized or contextualized to abstract) on students' display of knowledge were studied for 40 fifth graders in two…

In an attempt to determine the subscale structures most useful for identifying adolescents with social skill deficits, this study investigated the factor structure of the Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (TISS) and its relationship to two measures of adolescent social competence. Two measures were completed by 1,142 ninth-grade students (577…

The sources of multidimensionality found in several different forms of a licensure examination were studied. The relationship between one source of multidimensionality, differential item functioning (DIF) (or factors producing DIF), and content characteristics was explored in an attempt to isolate aspects of training or curriculum that could…

In 1985, Arizona initiated a 5-year pilot test of the Career Ladder Teacher Incentive and Development Program. The program provided alternate avenues for teachers to advance other than by accumulating years of experience and college credits. Data were collected annually through the Career Ladder Perception Assessment Scale Survey, which evaluated…

The factor structure and reliability of an instrument for measuring attitudes of preservice teachers toward science were studied as part of a 5-year project at the University of Wyoming (Laramie) to improve the teaching of science at the elementary school level. The Attitudes towards Science and Scientists Scale (ATSSS) of J. R. Cummings (1969)…

Newman (1984) examined the causal relations between math self-concept and math achievement in an 8-year longitudinal study using Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) analyses. He concluded that math self-concept did not influence subsequent math achievement. However, the study suffered in that math self-concept was inferred from a single-item…

This investigation: (1) tested the ability of an a priori hierarchical structure of self-concept derived from the Shavelson model to explain responses to the Self Description Questionnaire III (SDQ III); and (2) demonstrated the application and problems with the use of hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis. A first-order factor analysis…

This paper investigates the reliability of the Florida Performance Measurement Systems' Summative Observation instrument. Developed for the Florida Beginning Teacher Evaluation Program, it provides behavioral ratings for teachers in a classroom setting. Data came from ratings of videotapes of nine teachers conducting actual lessons by nine teams…

A locally revised measure of self-concept and racial attitudes was used to determine if factor analysis could detect possible item bias. Participants were 2,800 Hispanic Americans, Whites, and Blacks in fifth or eighth grade. A classical factor analysis (using commonality estimates) with Varimax rotation defined the factor structure of all…

A 30-item survey regarding needs in social studies instruction was administered to 151 elementary school teachers. Five statements were developed for each of six factors found in the professional literature: citizenship; issues; social sciences; skills; world; and traditional social studies. The teachers responded to each item twice: once, rating…

This is a progress report on research conducted (1) to consider the methodological issues of response set and multidimensionality, which might lead to a refinement of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC) and the Defensiveness Scale for Children and (2) to investigate social background and school achievement correlates of test anxiety and…

A study was conducted to identify types of mental operations of 4- and 5-year-olds and to relate them to the child's age and the educational level of the mother. The sample consisted of 423 white English-speaking children of American parentage, evenly divided by sex and as evenly distributed as possible over the 12-month-age range of 4 to 5 years.…

The Social Integration Scale (SIS) is intended to facilitate empirical research on the applicability of control theory to many types of adult crime, including "street crime," white collar crime, and physical assaults on spouses. There are five subscales: (1) belief (belief in law and social control); (2) commitment (psychological…